McGillicuddy Humanities Center welcomes composer Beglarian as part of ‘Rivers’ Symposium
As part of its 2023-24 symposium “Rivers,” the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center welcomed award-winning composer and performer Eve Beglarian to campus for a residency, during which time she delivered a series of master classes for music students in the School of Performing Arts. Her residency is culminating in a free, public performance on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Minsky Recital Hall. Beglarian will perform selections from the River Project, compositions made in response to a four-month journey by kayak and bicycle down the Mississippi River in 2009.
The New York Times wrote that Beglarian “has translated her findings into music of sophisticated rusticity. [Her] new Americana song cycle captures those swift currents as vividly as Mark Twain did. The works waft gracefully on her handsome folk croon and varied folk instrumentation as mysterious as their inspiration.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Beglarian is a “humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.” A 2023 winner of the Arts and Letters Award for “a spectacular body of work that innovates and takes enormous risks,” she is also a 2017 winner of the Alpert Award in the Arts for her “prolific, engaging and surprising body of work” and has been awarded the 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Prize from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her “innovation, risk-taking and experimentation.”
Her chamber, choral and orchestral music has been commissioned and widely performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the American Composers Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the California EAR Unit, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, loadbang, Newspeak, the Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble and individual performers including Maya Beiser, Lara Downes, Lucy Dhegrae and Thomas Feng.
“Eve’s compositions and performances make up what the American Academy of Arts and Letters described as ‘a spectacular body of work,’” said director of the McGillicuddy Humanities Center and UMaine professor of music Beth Wiemann, who will be joining Beglarian onstage for Thursday’s performance. “We’re thrilled to host her and her collaborators as part of our rivers and culture symposium this year.”
The McGillicuddy Humanities Center’s 2023-24 annual symposium theme, “Rivers,” addresses many aspects of how rivers both large and small — both literal and metaphorical — shape and are shaped by the stories we tell, the art we make and the ways in which we live alongside them.
This event is supported in part by a grant from the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee.
For more information or to request a reasonable accommodation, contact Brian Jansen at brian.jansen@maine.edu.